Slater Era Comes to End at Auburn

by Jay Coulter on May 18, 2008 4:43 PM CDT in Baseball Comment 2 comments

By Jay Coulter
jccoulter@gmail.com

In a move that surprised some, Auburn baseball coach Tom Slater stepped down on Saturday after a meeting with Athletic Director Jay Jacobs. In four seasons as Auburn's head coach, Slater had an overall record of 115-113 and a Southeastern Conference record of 43-77.

Throughout the season, Jacobs has been vocal in his support for Slater. Things seemed to change in recent days as Auburn fell from contention for the SEC Tournament next weekend in Birmingham.

Slater’s fate was sealed when he lost the first two games in Auburn’s final series of the year this weekend at home against LSU. Slater waited until after Saturday’s 11-7 loss to tell the team. Auburn finished the year with an overall record of 28-28 and 11-19 in the SEC.

"The bottom line is we needed to win more games," said Slater. "The record speaks for itself. I wish I had been able to accomplish that. I wish I had been able to win more games for Auburn University. This is a great university with a storied baseball program. I'll be rooting for Auburn no matter where I am unless I'm playing against them."

You have to give Slater props for handling the situation in such a class manner. Auburn will honor the final year of his contract.

Jacobs also deserves some credit. He stepped up and did the difficult, but right thing. There’s no doubt he could have retained Slater with little backlash from those that pull the purse strings. Hopefully, this shows that Jacobs is growing in his job.

Auburn will now turn its attention to a search for a new coach. The University has retained Carr Sports Associates out of Gainesville, Florida to assist in its search.

One name that has already surfaced as a candidate is current Samford coach Casey Dunn. The former Auburn All-American led the Bulldogs to the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title in his second season and was named conference coach of the year.

This year, Dunn has Samford heading to its conference tournament as the number two seed. Jacobs has set no timetable for the coaching search.

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The Dunns...

...have a heckofa baseball reputation around these parts. On the other hand, we've hired coaches "of lineage" out of Samford, before. The SEC is a tough league, in baseball. Whether a I-aa coach is the answer, wiser folk than I need to be consulted! My baseball knowledge is very limited.

by Acid Reign on May 18, 2008 8:22 PM CDT reply actions

Overall, glad to see Slater move on...

It's never easy to see an coach go, especially when he seems to have a great attitude and honestly cares about the school, but Slater's time had finally ran out as AU's baseball coach. The 4 teams under his tenure never really made progress, and a 43-77 SEC record over that period is unacceptable. We have a great baseball facility and offer our player's plenty of opportunities to excel on and off the field. I only know a little of Dunn, but his success at Samford and being a former AU player does give him a few points. Like Acid said, though, would I-AA success translate over to the SEC. At least he played his college years in the league. My biggest disappointment is seeing 95% of the players being from the state of Alabama. Now, for some of you that might not sit well, but I'm a Georgia native and AU grad. Why not at least recruit GA, TN and FL? Our football team has to in order to stay competitive, so why not our baseball team, too? Anyways, let's hope Jacobs really does go after a competitive coach that will bring AU baseball back into SEC contention. WDE!

by crashmattb on May 18, 2008 10:03 PM CDT reply actions